Devil's Doll
by SSBFreak
Summary: (Suikoden 3) A brunette girl stumbles upon a strange rune. One that has a horrific ability that involves both her and an attacking wolf...


"And where do you think YOU'RE going dressed like that, young lady?"

The young, brunette girl froze just steps away from the door and turned to face her mother, revealing that she was wearing a bright blue dress with white trimming, making her look more like a performer than a villager.

"But MOM…" The girl pleaded. "This is more comfortable! And…And my friends laugh when they see me dressed up. I like seeing them laugh…"

"So you like it when people laugh at you?" The girl's mother said sternly. "Melanie, you are NOT a clown."

"But I want to make people laugh. Starting with my friends." The girl said. "So can't I just wear this? I just got this dress and I know my friends will laugh."

The mother sighed, realizing that she wouldn't be getting anywhere. "Fine. But remember that if you make a fool of yourself out there, you have no one to blame but yourself." She said.

Mel brightened up instantly. "Thanks, mom!" She said as she turned and flew out the door to her house.

Outside of her house, Mel looked around her village. The village wasn't anything special, and it was a relatively-small village to begin with. That being said, it was a quiet village and very peaceful most of them time, so this village was perfect for families wanting to get out of a city. Because of this, many of the people in the village did farm-related work and had had patches of land around the perimeter of the village.

"Man. Mom can be such a killjoy sometimes." Mel shook her head. "Now then, where are the others today?"

Mel looked around and saw a small group of kids her age playing around in the middle of the village. Mel gave a smile, smoothed out her loud dress and ran over to join them.

The kids obviously had a good laugh at Mel's dress, but the brunette girl liked it that way. If the kids were laughing, she was doing her job.

**(Later…)**

Mel bid farewell to her friends as they all left to go back to their homes for supper. Like always, Mel was the last one to leave the center of the village because all of the others wanted to talk to her before they left. Once the other kids were all gone, Mel looked around again.

"Another successful day." She said to herself.

Now Mel needed to try and find something to do until she was called for supper. Her mom always made supper a little later than the other mothers in the village did, so by Mel's watch, she didn't need to be home for another good forty-five minutes at least.

Mel's attention turned to the small forest that was near the entrance to the village and the brunette girl gave a smirk. To be honest, she loved going into the forest despite her parents telling her how dangerous it was.

Truth be told, she liked seeing the different wildlife of the forest. She never really saw any dangerous animals in the forest and every animals she ever saw either ignored her presence or got close to her.

Deciding to see what the forest had to offer today, Mel ventured forth and stepped into the woods, wanting to see what she could find.

**(Soon…)**

Mel walked through the woods and looked around in fascination. Small creatures were abundant, from little rabbits to birds flying around. Mel even noticed some Holly Leaves, known to attack people, and they seemed to not even notice that she was there.

Mel loved walking through the forest at sunset. The red and orange rays from the sun crept in through gaps in the trees overhead, making the spectacle that much more breathtaking.

"Hey, little guy." Mel said, bending over to scratch a rabbit on the head. The rabbit, while surprised, appeared to lean into the scratching.

Suddenly, Mel saw something out of the corner of her eye. She spotted what looked like a ball of traveling light floating through the woods. The light appeared to twinkle every time it went through a ray of light coming from the sun, and Mel saw that it was something she had never seen before.

"What…What IS that?" Mel asked, slowly getting up and walked towards the ball of light. "Maybe…Maybe it's a Sprite of the forest or something."

Curiously, Mel followed the orb of light through the woods. Every time she got too close, the ball of light appeared to speed up, so Mel knew that she had to keep her distance from it. The orb snaked around some trees as it made its way through the forest with Mel behind it.

After several minutes of following the light, Mel stepped into an opening in the forest. Mel found herself coming to a slow halt as she looked around in awe.

The opening in the forest appeared to be man-made, with the sun rays from the sunset shining down around the whole area. There appeared to be a stone platform in the middle of the clearing with steps leading up to it. However, it was what was on the platform itself that caught Mel's attention.

It was what looked like a holographic image of a rune, but unlike anything she had seen before. It looked like the image of a marionette suspended with strings that extended into nothingness, although it looked like it was an evil marionette with a creepy smirk and small horns.

"Is…Is that a rune?" Mel asked as she approached. "I've never seen anything like it."

Mel slowly walked up the steps leading to the rune to inspect it closer, still in awe at the new rune. She slowly extended her hand towards the rune…

Suddenly, Mel heard a low growl coming from the side. The brunette turned her head and her eyes widened at the sight. A wolf was seen stalking in from the side, growling at Mel and looking hungry.

Mel took a deep breath, not wanting to make any sudden moves. She had never seen a wolf before, at least not this close. Her parents always warned her about wolves, and she heard wolves howling at the moon quite often.

The wolf slowly approached Mel, snarling and growling. It crouched low as Mel remained at the rune, hand outstretched towards it. It seemed that she was too afraid to make a move.

Unknown to Mel, the rune started glowing.

The wolf leaped at Mel, who finally screamed and shielded her eyes. Everything suddenly went white…

**(Later…)**

Mel slowly regained consciousness, rocking her head back and forth as she stirred. Slowly, she sat up, by now half-awake.

"What…What happened?" Mel asked herself.

Mel tried to feel her head with her hand, but her eyes widened when she felt two furry paws touching her head instead of one hand. Curiously and almost hesitantly, she looked at her hand.

Instead of a hand, she saw a wolf-like being staring back at her.

Mel screamed at the new sight, almost afraid that the wolf would kill her. Amazingly, the wolf screamed back.

"Hey! Don't scream like that! I got sensitive ears!" The wolf howled in a comical voice.

Mel froze in shock. The wolf…Spoke?

"How…How can you speak?" Mel asked.

"Look, I've always been able to speak. I just never really understood you until now for some odd reason." The wolf insisted. "We speak two different languages."

Mel paused. The thought that humans and animals had two different languages may have sounded a little odd, but it made sense. She didn't get the chance to ponder the revelation, as the wolf spoke again.

"Now that we've got that out of the way, could you PLEASE tell me where my legs went?!"

Mel grabbed hold of the wolf's torso and tried to pull the being off her arm. To her horror, the wolf didn't budge. "You've been grafted to my arm!" She cried.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What?!" The wolf asked. "How do you propose that even happened?!"

Mel glanced up at the platform where the rune was. She saw that the rune was no longer there. "It had to have been that rune." She said. "Whatever it was, it fused us together!"

The wolf looked over its body, as if seeing that it still didn't have any legs. "Have any ideas why I got attached to you and not the other way around?" The wolf asked.

"Maybe because I was reaching out for it already when you pounced." Mel pointed out. "Logically, I was touching it first."

"Some rune. How do we fix this?" The wolf asked.

"I don't know! My village doesn't have anyone that specializes in Runes!" Mel insisted. "But…I can't go back there like this! They'll think I'm a freak of nature!"

"How do you think I feel?! I'm attached to the arm of a human and I don't have any legs!" The wolf said.

Mel appeared to be in thought. "Wait…Maybe I can convince the people of my village that you're a puppet!" She said in realization. "I love to entertain people, so it wouldn't be that hard to get people to think that you're my puppet!"

"Hey! I'm no one's puppet! I'm my own being!" The wolf said.

"I know that, but we need to keep people from thinking that we're freaks." Mel pointed out. "I know you don't like it, and I don't like it either, but this is the best chance we've got to conceal this."

The wolf sighed. "Fine. I'll go with it, but I won't like it."

Mel grinned. "Great! Now then, do you have a name I can call you, boy?" She asked.

"I don't have a name…And I'm a girl, genius."

Mel blinked. "Uh…Oh. Didn't really notice it." She admitted. "But…Okay, then. How about I call you 'Branky'?"

"Fine. I only have to live with it for as long as we're together." The wolf sighed. "That's a stupid name and you know it."

"It's a perfect name for a puppet. No one will be the wiser." Mel said.

Branky was silent. "Fine. If it'll get me out of this, then I guess I'll have to go along with it." She admitted.

"Okay. I guess I should take you back home. We'll see if there's a way we can fix this."

With that, Mel stood up and started making her way through the woods again, although a little awkwardly now that she had a wolf grafted to her arm.

**(Some time passes…)**

A good few months passed. Although Mel's family and friends found it odd to see the brunette girl constantly carrying her new wolf puppet around with her, everyone dismissed it as Mel's natural personality.

It took Mel a while, but she found someone in the area that knew a lot about runes. After making an appointment to talk to him, Mel finally got the chance to talk to him.

"…It's just that I saw this weird rune on one of my trips through the forest." Mel said. "I had never seen it before and I was hoping you'd know what it was."

"…You say that it looked like a marionette?" The man asked.

"An evil one." Mel supplied.

"Hmm…If my research is correct, that's the fabled 'Devil's Doll' Rune. Only one in existence." The man said. "It was sealed away when it was proven to be too dangerous."

"Why? What happened?" Mel asked. Branky was looking interested as well.

"Two men ended up fused together. One of them was forced to become like a puppet for the other and it took them a long time to find a way to remove the rune without killing them both."

"Seriously?! That's messed up!" Mel said, trying to sound astonished at what the rune could do. "But…How did they get separated?"

"Apparently, there was a very specific Runemaster that knew how to do it." The man said. "I don't know if anyone in this day and age can do it. That's why the rune got sealed away."

"Wow…That rune sounds like bad news…" Mel said.

"It is. Is there anything else you wanted to know?"

"Um…Nope. I was just curious about the rune. Thanks for your time, mister."

Bidding farewell to the man, Mel left the shop. Once she was by herself again, Branky looked at her.

"Well, NOW what do we do?" Branky asked.

"We need to start looking for someone that can help us." Mel said. "There has to be SOMEONE that knows how to remove the rune."

**(Even later still…)**

Mel stood outside a building in Iksay Village, having just visited a nearby Rune Shop. Once again, she was having no luck with finding a Runemaster skilled enough to remove the Rune.

"I think we're running in circles." Branky supplied. "We've been all over this land and we still haven't found anyone that can help us."

"We need to cover all of the ground we can before we move onto the next land." Mel pointed out. "I know you're impatient for wanting this done and over with, and I am as well, but we need to remain positive that someone out there can help us."

"I still think you're way too optimistic." Branky rolled her eyes. "We're gonna be stuck like this for the rest of our lives."

Mel was about to make a reply when she saw a young man enter the village from far off. She saw that he had dark hair, an orange jacket and a timid look on his face. "Hmm…I've never seen that kid around here before." She said. "He must come from a place in this land where we haven't been yet."

"He looks like a basket-case." Branky said.

"That may be so, but wherever he comes from, there must be a Runemaster." Mel said. "Why don't we go see what he wants?"

Branky sighed. "Sure. Why _NOT_?"

And so, the two mismatched and unwilling partners walked forward to meet the boy, hoping that he could find an answer to their problems.

END


End file.
